Gary Fineout - page 34

The attorney general of Florida says in court documents that recognizing same sex marriages performed in other states would disrupt existing marriage laws and “impose significant public harm.” Eight gay couples and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the state in federal court in March. The lawsuit argues Florida is discriminating against the couples by not recognizing same-sex marriages performed in states where they are legal. Attorney General Pam Bondi, a Republican who was named in the lawsuit along with…

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A bitter legal feud over Florida’s political landscape has now made its way to the United States Supreme Court. An emergency petition was filed Wednesday with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas that asked him to stop a Florida judge from hearing evidence obtained from a Republican political consulting firm. The Florida Supreme Court ruled this week that up to 538 pages of evidence could be used by groups suing the Legislature over new political maps. But the court also…

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A Florida appeals court on Thursday blocked the release of documents that are supposed to be key evidence in an ongoing trial to determine whether state legislators broke the law when drawing up new political maps. The groups suing the Florida Legislature had obtained documents from a Gainesville-based political consulting firm and wanted to use them to show that legislators drew up congressional districts in 2012 in a way that would help Republicans. But lawyers hired by the Republican Party…

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House Speaker Will Weatherford testified on Tuesday that the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature went out of its way to shed all political considerations when legislators drew up new congressional maps two years ago. Besides Weatherford’s remarks, the second day of the redistricting trial also featured plenty of details about what happens behind the scenes. A former top House aide testified that while he worked there, he deleted all sorts of emails from his computer every day, including about the redistricting efforts.…

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Florida is heading into hurricane season with good news. The state-created fund that backs up private insurers in Florida appears to be in very good financial shape again this year. New projections show that the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund should have nearly $13 billion available for the Atlantic hurricane season that starts on June 1. On Thursday, an advisory panel for the fund will hear Wall Street firm estimates on how much money the fund would have to borrow if…

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A court fight over Florida’s political landscape kicked off Friday, as attorneys for the Republican-controlled Legislature and groups suing them clashed over the question of whether legislators intended to thwart the will of voters when they drew new districts for congressional seats in 2012. Lawsuits were first filed two years ago. The trial is scheduled to start later this month in a dispute that could ultimately change the current makeup of the state’s congressional delegation, where Republicans hold a sizable…

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A federal judge acknowledged Tuesday that Florida’s contentious teacher evaluation law is unfair, but he still ruled that there was no legal reason to overturn it. Seven teachers from three counties as well as several teacher unions contended that the 2011 law tying teacher evaluations and pay to standardized testing was unconstitutional. But U.S District Judge Mark Walker, in an 18-page ruling upheld, the law and dismissed the lawsuit. He said he agreed with the teachers and unions that the…

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